Interestingly, the current rules surrounding gyms in Poland is in favor of grappling. For instance, if you train BJJ or Judo then your gym can legally stay open. The likes of Adam Wardzinski have continued training under this situation, as have countless other Polish grapplers whose gyms have not been affected.
However, one particular gym which wasn’t grappling-based also faced closure due to government legislation. Atlantic Sports club in Kraków is primarily a health gym that features a weights room and squash courts. Firstly, they claimed, “since gyms cannot function, we are opening the Atlantic Shop with exercise equipment…Everyone who wants to test our equipment for a fee is welcome.” This may be a possible loophole to stay open as a shop that uses weights, although it is not known whether this technicality will stay open in the long-term.
This was stated by the gym manager, Marta Jamróz who later added “because fitness classes cannot function, from today religious gatherings will take place in our club for members of the association called the Church of the Healthy Body…conducted by our Council of Elders.”
Whatever your views on the morality of running a gym through the loophole of religion, you have to agree that it’s quite an ingenious idea to exploit a loophole. As Poland is still a deeply religious country, it’s so crazy it may just work. If successful, this model could also be applied to other countries where gyms are desperate to re-open in a bid to survive as a business. However, some countries may have stricter rules on what qualifies as a religious place of worship.
